Improvement in casting chains



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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

C. C. E. VAN ALSTINE, OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT.

IMPROVEMENT IN CASTING CHAINS.

Specication forming part of Letters Patent No. 81,563, dated August 25, 1868.

To all whom t'may concern:

Be it known that I, C. C. E. VAN ALs'rINE, of New Haven, in the county oi' New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented anew Process for Casting Chains, and I do hereby declare the following, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, and the letters of reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, and which said drawings constitute part of this specification, and represent, in

Figure l, a perspective view of the flask with the molds in place 5 Fig. 2, a perspective view, the upper halt' of the iiask removed from the molds; Fig. 3, a perspective view, one-quarter of the iask removed from the molds; Fig. 4, a perspective view, showing the manner of iilling the ilasks.; and in Fig. 5 an end view, with the molds removed for the purpose of pouring the metal.

` This invention relates to an improvement in the manufacture of metallic chains, such as have heretofore been formed from wrought.. metal, and the links welded together, the object being to produce a chain at less expense, and of quite or nearly equal strength; and the process consists in the construction oi' a flask, divided longitudinally in quarters, and arranged so as to receive amold-board between each two of the four quarters-that is to say, so that the mold-board will divide the ilask both vertically and horizontallyand one-half the pattern formed upon opposite sides of each part of the mold-board, so that the links will be molded one within the other, and, when all are molded, .the mold-board is removed, the four parts or quarters of the flask set and locked together', and a succession of link-molds is formed in. the center, into which the metal is poured to forni the chain. i

AIn order to the clear understanding of my invention, I 'will fully describe the same as illustrated in the accompanying drawiu gs.

I first form a iiask in four parts, A, B, C, and D, each part being one-fourth of the whole, divided longitudinally; and I form mold-boards E, F, Gr, and H, corresponding to each quarter of the flask, so that, when the four mold-boards are inserted, they divide the ilask into four parts, as seen in Fig. 1. Upon two parts of the mold-board, as F and Gr, (see Fig. 2,) I form, upon the upper and under side, one-half of the links-that is to say, onequarter of the link upon one side of the board, and a corresponding quarter upon the opposite side of the same board-and the other two quarters in. like manner upon the other board, and upon the other two quarters or parts of the mold-board E and H, I form, in like manner, the parts of other links, and in relative position tothe parts of the links on the other board, as seen in Fig. 3. Thus formed and placed together, I remove the top of one quarter, as seen in Fig. 4, and ll with sand, in the usual manner for casting, thenl the opposite quarter in like manner, then invert the flask andrll the other two quarters, then separate the parts of the flask and remove the mold-boards and patterns, and, when the moldlboards and patterns are so removed, unite the parts of the flask and lock themv together, as in Fig. 5, which will leave in the center the mold-board for the successive links, the one within the next, and so on. I conneet the several links by a gate, as seen in Fig. 2, so that the metal will run to the several links.

The length of the chain cast will, of course, depend upon the length of the iiask, but, having cast one length, the end link of such completed length may be placed in the mold of the last link at the end of the lask, and

the next link cast and united to the iirst, and

so on to any desired length.

I prefer to form the chain in this manner from malleable iron, as such, when properly manufactured, is nearly or quite equal to wrought-iron chain of the same size, but other metal may be used. I

I do not broadly claim the casting at one time of several successive links of chain.

Having thus fully described my invention, 

